CHAPTER XIV
JEALOUSY
Jessie Norwood had not much personal desire to "beat" either BelleRingold or any other worker for the bazaar; but she confessed to ahope that the radio show had helped largely to make up the deficit inchurch income for which the bazaar had been intended.
Miss Seymour had added up after each show the amount taken in at thedoor of the tent. Before the lights were put out and the booths weredismantled she was ready to announce to the committee the sum total ofthe radio tent's earnings.
"Goody! That will beat Belle, sure as you live," Amy cried when sheheard it, and dragged Jessie away across the lawn to hear the reportof the sum taken from the cash-drawer under the orangeade counter.Groups of young people milled around the "concession" which served thedelicious cooling drinks.
"Walk right up, ladies and gentlemen--and anybody else that's withyou--and buy the last of the chilled nectar served by these maskedgoddesses. In other words, buy us out so we can all go home." It wasDarry Drew up on a stool ballyhooing for the soft drink booth.
"Did you ever?" gasped the young collegian's sister. "He is helpingthat Belle Ringold. I am amazed at Darry!"
"He is helping the church society," said Jessie, composedly.
But she could easily believe that Belle had deliberately entangledDarry in this thing. He never would have chosen to help Belle inclosing out her supply of orangeade.
There she stood behind her counter, scarcely helping wait on the tradeherself, but aided by three of her most intimate girl friends. Bellegave her attention to Darry Drew. She seemed to consider it necessaryto steady him upon the stool while he acted as "barker."
"Come away, do!" sniffed Amy to Jessie. "That brother of mine is asweak as water. Any girl, if she wants to, can wind him right aroundher finger."
But Jessie did not wholly believe that. She knew Darry's characterpretty well, perhaps better than Amy did. He would be altogether tooeasy-going to refuse to help Belle, especially in a good cause. BelleRingold was very shrewd, young as she was, in the arts of gaining andholding the attention of young men.
But Darry saw his sister coming and knew that Amy disapproved. Heflushed and jumped down from the stool.
"Oh, Mr. Drew! Darrington!" cried Belle, languishingly, "you won'tleave us?" Then she, too, saw Amy and Jessie approaching. "Oh, well,"Belle sneered, "if the children need you, I suppose you have to go."
Burd, who stood by, developed a spasm of laughter when he saw Amy'sexpression of countenance, but Jessie got her chum away before therecame any further explosion.
"Never you mind!" muttered Amy. "I know you've got her beaten withyour radio show. You see!"
It proved to be true--this prophecy of Amy's. The committee, adding upthe intake of the various booths, reported that the radio tent hadbeen by far the most profitable of any of the various money-makingschemes. By that time the booths were entirely dismantled and almosteverybody had gone home.
Belle and her friends had lingered on the Norwood veranda, however, tohear the report. It seemed that Belle had not achieved all that shehad desired, although with the restaurant department, her stand hadwon a splendid profit. Of course, the money taken in at the radio tentwas almost all profit.
"She just thought of that wireless thing so as to make the rest of uslook cheap," Belle was heard to say to her friends. "Isn't that alwaysthe way when we come up here to the Norwoods'? Jess skims the cream ofeverything. I'll never break my back working for a churchentertainment again if the Norwoods have anything to do with it!"
Unfortunately Jessie heard this. It really spoiled the satisfactionshe had taken in the fact that her idea, and her radio set, had mademuch money for a good cause. She stole away from her chum and theother young people and went rather tearfully to bed.
Of course, she should not have minded so keenly the foolish talk of animpertinent and unkind girl. But she could not help wondering if otherpeople felt as Belle said she felt about the Norwoods. Jessie hadreally thought that she and Daddy and Momsy were very popular people,and she had innocently congratulated herself upon that fact.
The morning brought to Jessie Norwood more contentment. When Momsytold her how the ladies of the bazaar committee had praised Jessie'sthoughtfulness and ingenuity in supplying the radio entertainment, sheforgot Belle Ringold's jealousy and went cheerfully to work to helpclear up the grounds and the house. Her radio set was moved back toher room and she restrung the wires and connected up the receiverwithout help from anybody.
When Mr. Norwood came home that evening both she and Momsy noticed atonce that he was grave and apparently much troubled. Perhaps, if theirthought had not been given so entirely to the bazaar during the lastfew days, the lawyer's wife and daughter would before this havenoticed his worriment of mind.
"Is it that Ellison case, Robert?" Mrs. Norwood asked, at the dinnertable.
"It is the bane of my existence," declared the lawyer, withexasperation. "Those women are determined to obtain a much greatershare of the estate than belongs to them or than the testator everintended. Their testimony, I believe, is false. But as theapportionment of the property of the deceased Mr. Ellison must bedecided by verbal rather than written evidence, the story those womentell--and stick to--bears weight with the Surrogate."
"Your clients are likely to lose their share, then?" his wife asked.
"Unless we can get at the truth. I fear that neither of those womenknows what the truth means. Ha! If we could find the one witness, theone who was present when the old man dictated his will at the last!Well!"
"Can't you find her?" asked Momsy, who had, it seemed, knownsomething about the puzzling case before.
"Not a trace. The old man, Abel Ellison, died suddenly in MarthaPoole's house. She and the other woman are cousins and were distantlyrelated to Ellison. He had a shock or a stroke, or something, while hewas calling on Mrs. Poole. It did not affect his brain at all. Thephysicians are sure of that. Their testimony is clear.
"But neither of them heard what the old man said to the lawyer thatMrs. Poole sent for. McCracken is a scaly practitioner. He has beenbought over, body and soul, by the two women. You see, they are asporty crowd--race track habitues, and all that. The other woman--hername is Bothwell--has driven automobiles in races. She is a regularspeed fiend, they tell me.
"Anyhow, they are all of a kind, the two women and McCracken. AsEllison had never made a will that anybody knows of, and thisaffidavit regarding his dictated wishes is the only instrument broughtinto court, the Surrogate is inclined to give the thing weight.
"Here comes in our missing witness, a young girl who worked for Mrs.Poole. She was examined by my chief clerk and admitted she heard allthat was said in the room where Ellison died. Her testimonydiametrically opposes several items which McCracken has written intothe unsigned testament of the deceased.
"You see what we are up against when I tell you that the young girlhas disappeared. Martha Poole says she has run away and that she doesnot know where she went to. The girl seems to have no relatives orfriends. But I have my doubts about her having run away. I think shehas been hidden away in some place by the two women or by thelawyer."
"Oh, Daddy!" exclaimed Jessie, who had been listening with interest."That is just like the girl I tried to tell you about the othernight--little Henrietta's cousin. _She_ was carried off by two womenin an automobile. What do you think, Daddy? Could Bertha be the girlyou are looking for?"